A CARLISLE teenager has been prosecuted after police were alerted to him using so-called “laughing gas” while sitting in a parked car.

At the city’s Rickergate court, Byron Davidson, 19, admitted possessing nitrous oxide with the intention of “wrongfully inhaling it.”

Possessing the substance in non-medical settings became illegal on November 8 last year.

Prosecutor Peter Kelly said police were alerted on August 10 to a car, parked on the A6071 between Longtown and Brampton, in which somebody appeared to be consuming drugs.

“There was a reference to somebody ‘doing balloons',” said Mr Kelly, explaining that this was a colloquial reference to the way in which people illegally consumed nitrous oxide.

Referring to what happened when police questioned the defendant, the prosecutor said: “He cooperated and admitted that he had consumed nitrous oxide.

“There was an empty bottle [of the substance] found and also a full bottle; it was seized under the Misuse of Drugs Act.”

Davidson said he had paid £30 for the nitrous oxide but he insisted that he would not drive while consuming the Class C substance, the effects of which he said lasted for around 30 seconds.

It was the first time the defendant had ever been before a court.

Anthony Wilson, defending, said Davidson, who was working, was remorseful and he had no intention of ever using the substance again.

READ MORE: Police issue drug guidance after canisters littered in Carlisle

Magistrates noted that the defendant, of Beanlands Park, Irthington, had “very recently” been cautioned for possessing an illegal drug.

He now had a criminal conviction and, were he to repeat the offence, he could be facing a community penalty, they warned. The defendant was fined £177, with a £71 surcharge and £85 prosecution costs.

Abuse of nitrous oxide has been linked to a host of medical problems and also deaths. 

Between 2001 and 2020, there were 56 registered deaths involving nitrous oxide in England and Wales - 45 of them since 2010. The most common cause of death is suffocating from the lack of oxygen when the gas is used in confined spaces.

For more information about nitrous oxide, check out the national FRANK website on this link.